Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin

Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin, duc de Persigny (11 January 1808-12 January 1872) was Interior Minister of the Second French Empire from 1852 to 1854 (succeeding Charles de Morny and preceding Adolphe Billault) and from 1860 to 1863 (succeeding Billault and preceding Paul Boudet. He was known to be an extreme Bonapartist, and even Napoleon III called him "mad" for his strong views.

Biography
Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin was born in Saint-Germain-Lespinasse, France on 11 January 1808, and he served in a hussar regiment at the time of the July Revolution in 1830. After the revolution, he became a journalist, and he became a Bonapartist in 1833. He was involved in the abortive Bonapartist coups at Strasbourg in 1836 and Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1840, and he was sentenced to twenty years in prison for his involvement in the second coup. He was released after the French Revolution of 1848, and he assisted in securing Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's election as President of the French Second Republic. From 1852 to 1854 and from 1860 to 1863, he served as Interior Minister. Fialin was a fanatical follower of Emperor Napoleon III, earning him the loathing of his wife, Empress Eugenie de Montijo, a Legitimist. Fialin died in Nice in 1872.